The present invention relates to full-body harnesses worn by humans for fall-arresting purposes.
Various occupations place people in precarious positions at relatively dangerous heights, thereby creating a need for fall-arresting safety apparatus. Among other things, such apparatus usually include a safety line interconnected between a support structure and a person working in proximity to the support structure. The safety line is typically secured to a full-body harness worn by the worker. Obviously, such a harness must be designed to remain secure about the worker in the event of a fall. In addition, the harness should arrest a person""s fall in as safe a manner as possible, placing a minimal amount of strain on the person""s body. Yet another design consideration is to minimize the extent to which people may consider the harness uncomfortable and/or cumbersome.
Fall-arresting harnesses have been made with elastic straps to enhance user comfort and/or more evenly absorb or distribute impact associated with a fall. However, concerns exist about the effectiveness of these known elastic harnesses. In particular, if a conventional harness is modified simply by substituting elastic straps for inelastic straps, the containment capability of the harness may be compromised, and a person may slip from the harness during a fall and/or rebound. In other words, there remains a need for a harness which strikes an appropriate balance between user safety and user comfort.
One aspect of the present invention is the provision of a full-body safety harness having relatively more elastic shoulder straps and relatively less elastic other straps. Another aspect of the present invention is the provision of a full-body safety harness having shoulder straps which are secured to a D-ring and back pad assembly in such a manner that the D-ring changes position relative to the back pad in the event of a fall and thereby shortens the effective length of the shoulder straps. These two aspects are combined on a preferred embodiment harness constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The resulting combination makes the harness more comfortable during ordinary use while also ensuring user safety in the event of a fall. Additional features and/or advantages of the present invention may become more apparent from the detailed description which follows.